1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for the operation of an electronic appliance supplied with electric current by a finite energy store, in which a command to switch off is followed by the execution of a first program.
2. Prior Art
Such appliances are frequently used in today's motor vehicles, and are known from practice. Such appliances, in the form of controllers, a piece of software, starts the first program, which stores data in a nonvolatile memory, when the ignition of the motor vehicle is recognized to have been switched off, the piece of software switches off its own supply of current. This protects a battery—in the form of a finite energy store—in the motor vehicle from discharge as a result of permanently supplying the controller.
A drawback of the known appliances, however, is that in the event of an error in the first program, for example when a processor has given a command to switch off the program, the electronics in the appliance do not switch off as a result of an error. However, this results in the finite energy store being emptied after a relatively long period. The error in the appliance or in the program execution remains concealed from the driver of the motor vehicle.